Even if you spend a lot of money to buy branded furniture in a chain store, you may encounter this kind of surprise: you are obviously buying a brand of furniture produced in other places, but it turns out that it was produced in a small processing factory in Jinan OEM production. According to industry insiders, it has become an unspoken rule in the industry for dealers to "OEM" their own products and find local small factories to process branded furniture.

It is understood that many manufacturers now only focus on the performance assessment of dealers, but ignore the supervision and supervision of product quality. This allows many dealers to take advantage of the loopholes and produce OEM products locally. Trade off substandard products to earn more profits.

Consumers: I actually bought “fake goods” in big shopping malls

Dong Lei, who lives on Gongye South Road in Jinan, moved into a new house in 2011. After the new house was delivered in 2010, he specially ordered a branded wardrobe and shoe cabinet at a large furniture store in Jinan. Because Dong Lei's lover is pregnant, he pays special attention to the environmental protection performance of furniture.

But when workers came to install it, Dong Lei discovered a problem. The wardrobes delivered by the workers did not have the packaging required for long-distance transportation, but were simply packed with cardboard. During the installation process after opening the package, he found that the workmanship of the furniture was very rough, and the edges of the furniture were "stretched". In addition to the edges of the furniture, there is no brand logo on the hardware connecting the panels. What surprised him even more was that when the workers were installing the shoe cabinet, one of the wooden boards obviously did not fit the size. Although the workers replaced another wooden board the next day, the size was still not quite right.

After the family moved in, Dong Lei discovered more problems. Not only did the wardrobe smell relatively strong, but there were also problems such as damaged edges and tilted wardrobes. At this time, he realized that he might have bought the wardrobe. Counterfeit and shoddy products.

During the consultation process with the manufacturer, the staff told him that consumers can verify the authenticity through the number on the wardrobe on the official website. He asked the store for the furniture serial number and entered it on the official website. But there is no information about this wardrobe. The manufacturer initially determined during the phone call that the wardrobe was not produced by the manufacturer. "This wardrobe cost 6,000 yuan." Dong Lei said angrily.

Processing factory: As long as the drawings are provided, any brand can be made.

Through the introduction of a friend, the reporter contacted Boss Li, who runs a furniture processing factory in Jinan. Boss Li's processing factory is located at the west end of a village along Jinan Jingshi West Road. The yard of several hundred square meters is covered with a canopy, and the ground is covered with wooden boards. Two workers are busy. Boss Li told reporters that he has two factories. This factory mainly makes his own brand of furniture, and the other factory takes some orders from outside.

Speaking of the quality of the products, Boss Li patted his chest and assured the reporter, "There will definitely be no problem." According to Boss Li, their factory is also well-known in the Jinan furniture production circle and is known for its good quality. Not only do many retail investors come to them to customize furniture, but there are also brand furniture sellers who come to them to customize furniture.

"You may not believe it, but we have made wardrobe cabinets, cupboards, etc. for several big brands of furniture. They gave us the drawings and we can make them." Boss Li said that the main performance of furniture brands As for the edge-banding logo, as long as it can reach a certain quantity, edge-banding logos can also be made, ensuring that the fake ones look like the real ones.

At a furniture processing factory on Gongye North Road in Jinan, staff also confirmed to reporters the statement of local OEM. When the reporter asked to see the samples they made for brand furniture, the staff member said that they did not have samples on hand at the moment. When there was an order, the other party would send them the drawings and then deliver the goods directly to the customer.

The staff member also told reporters that since their factory cannot produce this kind of edge sealing by themselves, brand furniture sellers sometimes bring their own edge sealing logo strips when placing orders. He said that many manufacturers now tend to only focus on the performance assessment of dealers and ignore the supervision and supervision of product quality. This has allowed many dealers to take advantage of the loopholes and produce local OEM products and pass them off as good ones, making a profit. Take more profits.

During the investigation and interview process, many insiders told reporters that there are many local factories producing furniture in Jinan, with Huashan and Huanghebei being the most concentrated.

Promoter: It is an unspoken rule for dealers to “OEM” independently

After selling panel furniture for several years, Huang Lei, a shopping guide in a shopping mall in Jinan, has figured out the ropes.

She said that in terms of furniture production, there is a very popular production model OEM, also called OEM or fixed-point production. In this model, the brand owner does not directly produce products, but uses the key core technologies that it has mastered. Responsible for designing and developing new products, controlling sales channels, and entrusting specific processing tasks to other manufacturers of similar products through contract ordering. Afterwards, the customized products will be purchased at a low price and directly labeled with their own brand trademarks.

According to Huang Lei, formal OEM production is of course no problem. The key is that the so-called "OEM" that exists in the panel furniture market is just the independent behavior of local dealers. These dealers designate a local processing factory, and the dealer provides drawings. After the processing is completed, the dealer sells this part of the furniture as a certain brand of furniture.

"It is very common, and many larger brands of furniture have this problem." Huang Lei said that anti-counterfeiting is not outstanding, and consumers only check the color and style of the furniture when receiving the goods. There is no way to know whether it is the original product from the manufacturer.

Huang Lei said that in addition to the price advantage, locally produced furniture is unqualified in terms of environmental protection and board quality. Many consumers only discovered that the smell of furniture was very strong after they bought it home. "The amount of formaldehyde released must have exceeded the standard, and you obviously paid for a certain brand, but what was delivered to your home was produced in a small factory. Consumers Wouldn't it be very disturbing if you knew?"

On the 23rd, as a consumer, the reporter visited a furniture store on Beiyuan Street in Jinan and found that the prices of panel furniture varied greatly. Taking a wardrobe that is 2.2 meters long and 2.6 meters wide as an example, the price can be as high as 6,000 to 7,000 yuan, while the low price can be bought for more than 3,000 yuan.

Shopping guide He Cong said that most of the furniture sold in their exhibition area is original from Guangzhou, and each wooden board has an anti-counterfeiting logo. There are also a few products with slightly lower prices that are processed in small local factories in Jinan. In order to enter chain stores, these locally produced furniture are also labeled with brand furniture.

In more than a dozen panel furniture exhibition areas visited by the reporter, two shopping guides admitted that the furniture being promoted was produced by Jinan factories, but it was also a brand product. However, according to the information obtained by the reporter, these brands do not have formal production points in Jinan. Huang Lei said that the transportation cost of panels is relatively high. The freight for a set of furniture can account for about 5% of the sales price. Moreover, the panels used by manufacturers have undergone strict testing. The price of one meter of bare panels is more expensive than ordinary local panels. 30-40 yuan.

"Before, we only sold manufacturer-branded products, but other companies' prices were more advantageous than ours, so many customers went to other people's houses to place orders. We couldn't help it, everyone did it," He Cong said, They now also customize furniture produced locally in Jinan, and when they enter the store, they are marked as a certain brand, otherwise even the samples cannot enter the store.